CURRENT & EMERGING ISSUES
Current and emerging issues we are monitoring
- Eminent Domain: Renton High School Expansion (petition/letter on our website)
- Derelict Buildings: Park Ave and the Red Lion
- Pavilion Event Center
- Coordination with State Lawmakers
- City Council
- Crime
- Homelessness
- Asphalt Plant
- Elections
- On-going road construction projects with multiple delays
- Communication between residents and Council
- Council sending land-use appeals to Superior Court
- Airport Management reversing decades of effort
- Sound Transit
- Logan 6
Eminent Domain – Renton High School Expansion
32 homes and 8 businesses are being demolished as Renton High School expands its footprint to add more sports fields. Voters had approved a $679 Million dollar bond issuance for security upgrades district-wide, and a new school at a new location for Renton High, with a commitment to repurpose the old Renton High School. The District now claims voters approved seizure of the neighborhood around Renton High, and teardown of the historic (and recently upgraded) school building. The District is already $126 million over their stated budget on the project.
Derelict Buildings (focusing on Park Ave)
The former Boeing buildings on Park Avenue and 6th Street were sold to a Southern California development company, and they have become death traps. Broken windows, no fire protection, open elevator shafts, biohazards, and many other risks have continued to fester for years. Meanwhile, numerous people are occupying these buildings with no utilities.
Renton has codes requiring that vacant buildings be secured with the originally code approved glazing or architectural panels that match the building, and that fire protection systems are kept operative even when the building is vacant. Renton has the right to make the upgrades and bill the owners and put a lien on the property, but the City has not asserted this right.
The building was owned by Boeing until December 2021 when it was sold to current owner, ION Renton LLC, a company based in California, for $12 million, far below the appraised total value from that year of nearly $46 million.
Pavilion Event Center
Renton has lost two critical community event centers in the past five years; Red Lion Hotel and Convention Center and now our downtown Pavilion Event Center. A local business leader was going to personally fund its conversion to a year-round market building that could still host events, but has since pulled his funding. This resulted in the city using taxpayer funds of approximately 10M and abandoning any features that would make the Pavilion flexible enough to still host events.
Coordination with State Lawmakers
City Council should be holding our state representatives accountable for their policy decisions. City Councils and School Boards in Washington State are non-partisan per state law, and they should be making their decisions solely based on the needs of their constituents. Renton City Council members jobs are non-partisan and hence they should work in the best interest of Renton and not make decisions based on their party preference.
City Council
Council must perform their legislative function. Under state law, most of the City’s power is in the hands of the City Council. The Mayor is the spokesperson, and the Council, not the Mayor, sets the budget, priorities, and city policy. The seven council members should have seven opinions on many issues. These opinions can only be legally discussed and reconciled in open public meetings, so residents should be seeing lengthy discussion and debates on issues important to Renton. Instead the City Staff and Mayor appear to be making decisions that are the purview of the Council. (The Council has the role of the Board of Directors, with the Mayor as CEO. The CEO does what the Board tells the CEO to do, not vice versa.)
Crime
We will add more details to this topic in the very near future. In the interim we were able to review a map and statistics however what we were not able to discern is when the data was updated. We have reached out to City Administrative staff for assistance.
We also know that the Gang Suppression Unit (aka gang task force) was re-implemented recently as a result of increased gang activity. Awaiting additional information on this too.
Homelessness
We will add more details to this topic in the very near future. We have reached out to City Administrative staff for assistance. In the interim a few items we’re researching: % of population, how many other cities (and who those cities are) are transporting their homeless to Renton, and % of our hotels being used as shelters.
Asphalt Plant
Though we understand that some feel that proper procedures in issuing the required permits for the soil cleanup and construction of the plant were followed, it still remains that other issues should have been taken into consideration including: The Muckleshoot Tribe working diligently to restore the salmon populations in the Cedar River, that the proposed site sits about 150 feet from the Cedar River, and that Rention’s Regional Fire Authority Chief wrote a letter stating that RRFA has “serious concerns” regarding the high hazard risk the plant presents including several highly toxic, combustible and flammable chemicals for the manufacture of asphalt that are incompatible with life and the environment. Also, asphalt plants can include emergency incidents that result in explosions from asphalt fumes, fire and toxic exposures. The RRFA also has concerns over the runoff that would occur from either fighting a fire or a chemical spill that may occur, and the close proximity of the Cedar River. A catastrophic failure due to explosion or a seismic event could create the right conditions for entry into the river and grow the hazard area exponentially due to the movement of the water.
Regan Dunn said he was “greatly troubled” by the decision to approve the permit. Siting an asphalt plant so close to the Cedar River — an environmentally sensitive location that is home to critical salmon habitat in addition to being a drinking water source for 1.4 million people in our region — presents an unwarranted risk of contamination and overly burdens rural communities with pollution, traffic, and other known impacts. This is shockingly poor land use policy that, I fear, will have harmful ramifications for generations to come.
State law allows Renton to purchase land outside of its jurisdiction to protect its water supply. City Council has refused to act.
Elections
There are three City Council Positions and two School Board positions up for election this campaign season. In the future, we’d like to make sure no position runs unopposed and to also have dialogue around term limits and districts, with at least one at-large position.
On-going road construction projects with multiple delays
Transportation projects have been taking much longer in recent years, with more long-term lane closures and creeping delays. Many businesses have been adversely impacted, including those impacted by the Rainier Ave Phase 4 improvement. It was initially scheduled to be completed by March 2025 and instead, after multiple additional delays, is expected to be completed October 2025. Renton Council has financial responsibility to stay on top of these projects, and drive discipline into their execution to avoid going over budget.
Communication between Residents and Council
Council Meetings have historically given Renton residents two opportunities to speak to council, of five minutes each: once near the start of each meeting, and once near the end. Council used to ask numerous questions, and hold a dialogue with these residents during the meeting. During the pandemic Council changed the rules to a single 5 minute opportunity to speak to council, and then changed it yet again and reduced it to 3 minutes. Council also stopped responding to comments, except for in a few extraordinary cases, leaving residents feeling unheard and ignored.
Council sending land-use appeals to Superior Court
North Renton residents concerned about the Logan Six project were forbidden to talk to council for more than a year because Council was going to hear their land-use appeal of the Hearing Examiner’s decision. Then at the very last minute – the night before the public hearing – Council announced their decision to send land-use appeals to court instead of hearing the appeal themselves. This decision cost both the applicants and respondents thousands of dollars, and many months of delays, while not providing any additional service since the court was already a secondary appeal option. By removing themselves from review of land use policies, Council loses awareness of how their rules are being implemented and how they impact real projects.
Renton Municipal Airport
We will add more details to this topic in the very near future. In the interim a few items we’re researching: the impact on allowing more private jets and hangars, allowing larger airplanes and the additional noise, and how allowing larger airplanes will impact the Renton High School expansion (eminent domain).
Sound Transit
Renton residents have contributed a significant amount of money (potentially in the billion range) to Sound Transit. The ‘contribution’ has not resulted in a return on investment and City Council needs to hold Sound Transit to its commitments in Renton, including getting BRT running as soon as possible with the promised headways, to build the new transit center with adequate parking, to put parking at the Exit 7 BRT stop, and to perform the engineering study to determine an alignment for a future Link light rail connection. The above still won’t provide an ROI for the money Renton contributed and is the bare minimum that should occur.
Logan 6
Logan 6 has been difficult for both the builder and the community because the Council and Mayor refused to engage on incompatibilities and essentially ignored the residents. The residents’ concerns about the one-hundred unit (one, two, and three bedroom), nearly one-hundred-foot-high proposed apartment development with commercial/retail space, to be located across from the Renton Municipal football stadium, is poorly situated with entrances/exits located on arterial one-way streets. The neighborhood will be adversely impacted in numerous ways including the fact that traffic will be diverted into the adjoining neighborhood, and as a result of insufficient parking, the neighborhood who mainly has on street parking, will be jockeying for space along with the apartment residents.
Incompatible land uses in the area, coupled with a high traffic volume will exacerbate already difficult driving conditions. In addition, it is also highly concerning that any new elementary students from this development will be bussed to their elementary school with the bus stop being located directly in front of the development at Logan Ave N and N 3rd.
Boeing has also voiced their opposition since October 2022. Boeing has two 15-foot easements that run north and south through the property which hold two high pressure water lines that are required for the Renton facility to operate.
Residents engaged directly with the architect, invited the developer (and his son) to attend a meeting, and they eventually met. The meeting only led to further confusion about the project as there was contradictory information shared by the developer about what the city said they can and can’t do regarding the development. City Council and the Mayor has shown general reluctance to engage with residents and missed several opportunities to make improvements to align zoning with design standards and comprehensive plan elements. As a result of City Council and the Mayor not engaging with the residents for nearly a year, residents filed an appeal in Superior Court.
Airport
(https://www.randycorman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Draft-RNT_SMP_Draft-11-30-2012.pdf),
Asphalt Plant
https://yourvoice.rentonwa.gov/word-on-the-street/news_feed/asphalt-plant
https://www.randycorman.com/?p=21924
Logan 6
https://www.randycorman.com/?p=22675
https://www.rentonreporter.com/news/residents-raise-concerns-about-logan-avenue-development/
https://edocs.rentonwa.gov/Documents/DocView.aspx?id=11481351&dbid=0&repo=CityofRenton&cr=1 (look at page 6 section G on the elementary school bus stop on Logan & 3rd)
Park Ave buildings
https://www.randycorman.com/?p=15722
https://seatacnoise.info/42b58109ea8587d682db600dd8081bd2/
https://www.kentreporter.com/northwest/fire-crews-extinguish-renton-fire-in-vacant-boeing-building/
RSB/RHS Expansion & Eminent Domain
To learn more about this issue and get involved you can read this letter (click here). If you are a business owner, or leader of an organization, email [email protected] to sign the letter. If you have a minute, also read and sign our online petition here. Please sign no later than June 19th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S3x5OCZ77o
https://www.rentonreporter.com/news/district-to-condemn-final-home-for-new-renton-high-school/
https://www.randycorman.com/?p=21904
https://www.rentonschools.us/departments/capital-planning/construction-projects/projects (confirms the science wing cost)
Pavilion
https://www.randycorman.com/?p=22945
https://www.rentonreporter.com/news/renton-preps-downtown-for-hosting-world-cup-action/
https://www.kentreporter.com/northwest/renton-picks-company-to-build-world-cup-legacy-square-park/
Crime
https://www.rentonwa.gov/City-Services/Public-Safety-Services/Crime-Statistics-and-Mapping/Crime-Statistics (2023 calendar year and was released from the FBI in September, 2024)
https://www.areavibes.com/renton-wa/crime/
Sound Transit
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/08/29/renton-proposes-moving-sound-transit-bus-station/